Universal
Studios Florida - Hollywood: Lucy: A Tribute

Rating:
* * + Type: Museum-style display, with videoTime: Continuous viewingOur Take: Best for adults with a sense of history

Lucy: A Tribute is a walk-in display honoring the immortal Lucille Darlene Ball. It’s hard to miss, since you bump into it almost as soon as you enter the park. There’s hardly ever a crowd, so feel free to breeze on by and take it in later. If you run out of time . . . well, truth to tell, you haven’t missed much. Still, fans of the great redhead (and who isn’t?) will find at least something of interest here, even if it’s just a reminder to pull down those Lucy videos at home and take a four hundredth look.

The "tribute" is simply a large open room ringed with glassed-in display cases, like shop windows, crammed with Lucy memorabilia — photos, letters, scripts, costumes, and Lucy's six Emmys. One of the more interesting windows contains a model of the studio in which the ground-breaking I Love Lucy show was shot. It was the first show shot with the three-camera method still used today. A fascinating footnote: The sets in those days of black-and-white TV were actually painted in shades of gray (furniture, too) to provide optimum contrast on the home screen.

Continuously running videos feature Bob Hope and Gale Gordon reminiscing about Lucy, while brief clips remind us of just how much we really did love Lucy. You'll hear the people next to you saying, "Oh, I remember that one," or "I lo-o-o-ved that one." There's some interesting material here about Lucy's career before she became a television icon and an interactive I Love Lucy trivia quiz. And if you think the 3-D movie craze is something new, check out Lucy's stereographic family snapshots from the 1950s.